


we're in the endgame now

by togallifreywego



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Gen, M/M, Tags May Change, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, so many tags im sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2020-08-19 02:55:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20202571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/togallifreywego/pseuds/togallifreywego
Summary: my version of endgame ig??? ava starr centric because i missed her in endgame :,((((teen for swearing)scenes you recognise are from endgame!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> okok so this fic is assuming ava doesn't get dusted (+ im guessing we didn't see her in the endgame fight scene because she died from lack of quantum particles thanks internet for helping me realise that) because fuck it, i wanted my soft girl to be in endgame + she's probably not gonna be in phase 4 either  
chapter 1 is inspired by _ant-man and the ghost_ by silverskyfullofstars!

Something was happening. No, fuck that, something was _wrong_. Despite all her S.H.I.E.L.D training, depsite her handler's insistence that _S.H.I.E.L.D agents don't get scared, S.H.I.E.L.D agents are trained for every eventuality_, Ava was _terrified_. She watched as a teenage boy crumbled in on himself, dissolving into dust. She watched a middle-aged couple, their blissful smiles the last parts of them remaining, Cheshire Cat-esque, as their bodies collapsed into ashes. She watched as the atoms of what had been, only a few moments before, a flock of birds float to the ground. 

"Ava?! Ava have you seen what's on the news?" The small television, switched to the news, showed a live feed of somewhere in London. Only there was a small pile of ashes where the reporter should have sat. 

"Ava..." Bill's gasp made her whirl around. The man, the only person Ava considered a friend, was staring, wide-eyed at his legs. His legs that were currently drifting to the ground as dust. _Fuck_.

"Bill!" Ava wrapped her arms tightly around what was left of his chest, clinging to the childish hope that she could hold him together. 

"Find Lang. Find Lang and the others, they were testing the portable tunnel at Pym's lab. They'll keep you safe, they'll-" Bill's head crumpled in on itself, and Ava's mentor - _Fuck that, might as well be honest with herself_ \- Ava's _father figure_ now resembled the sort of dust pile people sweep out of sight when they have guests over. She had to find Lang and his team. _If they were still able to be found_. She sat back suddenly, surprised and slightly angry at the twinge of pain that the thought brought her. _Get a grip, Ava. You were trying to kill these people a few weeks ago!_

\--------

Call her soft, but Ava didn't have the heart to just brush the piles of ash off the seats of every available vehicle. They were people barely ten minutes ago, after all. 

She'd paused at the safehouse she was sharing - _had shared_ \- with Bill for only a few minutes. As much as she wanted to confirm that Lang and his team were alive, - _maybe then she'd feel slightly less lost_ \- she could hear her old handler's voice in the back of her mind, telling her to _ think logically, Starr! Emotions won't do you any good if your head's been blown off!_ So she packed. Food, clothes, laptop, phone and the necessary chargers. After a moment of hesitation, she pulled the Ghost suit on under her clothes, shoved the helmet face-down on top of her clothes, and, almost before her brain could remind her that _feelings are no help on a battlefield_, Ava had gathered Bill's ashes into a jar.

\-------

The streets were jammed with people, the luckier ones clinging to friends and the less lucky kneeling beside piles of ash, wearing the bewildered, angry look Ava knew all too well from her own face. She'd managed to find a motorcycle that had been parked rather than crashed, choking down the guilt that came with the theft. _ You did worse than steal for S.H.I.E.L.D_. Ava was no stranger to chaos and had swerved through the cars and people fairly easily to get to Pym's lab in record time. Thank god that Janet had overridden Hope's protests and gave her the lab code.

"Hank? Janet? Hope? Scott?" she shouted, her cries getting more desperate by the minute. After searching their usual lab space for ten minutes, a conversation she'd had with Lang a few days ago jumped to the front of her mind. A few sentences in particular. 

_"We're gonna get you more particles on Tuesday, when we test the portable tunnel. It should all be fine, but we're gonna take it up to the roof just in case. It **shrinks**!"_ Lang's update turned into a jumble of science-speak after that, and so Ava had focused more of the Barbie game she'd been playing with Cassie, but she was still kicking herself for forgetting such an important piece of information. She leapt for the stairs. 

As she'd dreaded, the rooftop was empty, except for the tangles of machinery Lang had been getting so excited about and three piles of ash. _Only three piles of ash_. Ava dived into the mess of wires. two minutes later, she reappeared, clutching a radio. 

"Hello?! Can anyone hear me?" Ava yelled into the radio. She was aware that she sounded desperate, aware that anyone who gave enough of a shit to listen could probably hear her and could take advantage of the show of weakness. "Can anyone hear me?!"

_Please answer, please answer, please answer..._

"Ava?! Is that you?" If Ava had been poetically inclined, she would have described Lang's tinny voice as music to her ears. 

"Lang? I don't suppose you can get yourself out of that hellhole or will I have to do all your work for you?" Lang wouldn't find any relief in her voice. _Moment of weakness over_.

\--------

"Okay, now pull the big red handle. The one that looks like something out of a Sci-Fi movie."

"Got it!" Ava yanked the handle, sagging with relief as, with a slight whirring noise, the tunnel threw Lang out onto the concrete. She was just debating whether or not she should just say _fuck it_ and hug the man when he pulled her into a surprisingly tight hug. 

"I'm glad you're okay!" Lang - _should she start calling him Scott now? The idiot had hugged her, didn't that mean they were friends?_ \- mumbled, eyes scanning the rooftop. _Looking for something? Looking for **someone**._

"Uhh, there's the others... Something's happened - Bill's gone all dusty too, loads of people have..." Ava swallowed hard to stop herself from crying. _You haven't cried since you were nine. Don't start now._ "What should we do?" 

For a horrible moment, Ava actually thought Scott was going to cry as he stared forlornly at the place where Hope had obviously been standing. He squeezed his eyes shut and blinked, as though trying to wake up from a nightmare. 

"We're going to go - oh good, you packed. Well, first we need to go to Maggie's house, make sure Cassie's okay -" Ava chose to ignore how his voice broke when talking about the possibility of Cassie _not_ being okay. "And then we're gonna go see some friends of mine. They'll be able to help."

"What makes these friends of yours so special?" 

Scott stared at her like she was mad. "They're the _Avengers_!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi im adding to this fic again bc my writers block has finally fucked off - yay i finally have the inspiration and motivation to write something other than one shots again :)) - and ive started to make an actual plan for this fic. im actually really excited to write this guys - hope you enjoy the chapter :)

"_Cassie_! Oh, thank God!" Ava struggled to swallow the sharp pain in her chest as she watched Scott gather a sobbing Cassie into a bear hug. 

"Mommy and Paxton are gone!" Cassie cried into Scott's shoulder. 

"It's gonna be okay, Peanut, I promise," murmured Scott, rubbing small circles into Cassie's back. "How about you come with me and Ava to meet my friends? We'll try our best to bring Mommy and Paxton back and hopefully we will, okay?" At that, Cassie looked up from Scott's shoulder, giving Ava a glimpse of wide, teary brown eyes.

"You'll bring Mommy and Paxton back?"

"I can't promise that, Peanut, but we'll try our hardest, 'kay? Shall we go to them?" At Cassie's small nod of agreement, Scott gently untangled himself. "Why don't we go and pack some clothes? I don't think you ever did show Ava your room."

\--------

The all-too-familiar, burning pain began to claw its way up Ava's body just after they'd hit their fifth hour on the Interstate 80. Janet had warned her that she'd need several doses of healing particles to prevent her condition from deteriorating once again, but a stupid, naïve part of her - a part Ava had considered long dead - couldn't help but hope that Janet was wrong, that the one dose of particles could completely heal her. In the driver's seat of the van, Scott braked sharply as another car swerved in front of him. The pain spiked to blinding levels and Ava couldn't help but make a small, choked sound. Next to her, Cassie turned to look at her in alarm, and even Scott, who was concentrating intensely, glanced at her in the rear view mirror.

"Everything okay, Ava?" Ava screwed her eyes shut and pressed her fist to her mouth. Even the normally reassuring solidness of her knuckles didn't give her the same comfort it usually did - she'd likely start to phase again soon and even the small comfort of being solid would be stolen from her. She bit down hard on her knuckles, the small stab of pain nothing compared to the burning - and slowly growing in ferocity - pain dulling her senses. 

"It fucking _hurts_." The small part of Scott's forehead that she could see in the rear view mirror paled to a ghost-like complexion. There had been no way that they could fit all the equipment needed to work the quantum tunnel into the van - it just hadn't been designed for shrinking. She'd just have to ration the container of healing particles Scott had been collecting for her before 'the Snap' - CNN's phrase, not hers. Scott gave her a worried look when she sighed and pressed her forehead to the cool window. 

"We'll stop for the night soon, if you want." At Ava's worried expression, he added a quick, "We're still a good nineteen or so hours away, Ava, but we'll get to them tomorrow, I promise."

\--------

"Only about an hour or so away now, Ava," Scott said, trying to reassure her. Despite taking a small amount of the healing particles, she'd started to phase again as they passed the sign welcoming them to New Jersey. Some fucking welcome.

"Don't forget, the Avengers have Tony Stark. He's a literal genius, I'm sure he'll have something that would help." Ava could tell Scott was trying, but all that she could dare hope for now was that Stark had a sound-proof room where she could cry in peace. 

\--------

"Aaaand, here we are!" declared Scott, pulling into the Avengers compound around an hour later. Instantly, Ava could tell it was deserted. Her heart sank. She could tell Scott felt the same, slightly sad vibe of _nobody's been here for a while_ as he looked her in the eyes and whispered, "Don't tell Cassie!" before opening the door and leaning over to wake up his sleeping daughter. 

"Daddy? Are we there?" asked Cassie sleepily. 

"We sure are, Peanut. Nobody's here right now, so we're going to clean the place up for them, okay? They'll be back soon." Ava very much hoped that the Avengers would be - the possibility that _all_ of the Avengers had been wiped out was so unlikely - every news station they'd tuned into said the same thing: half of the population had been 'Snapped' - that Ava had barely even bothered to consider it. Now, though, she wished she had. 

"Okay, Peanut," said Scott, leading Cassie through an unlocked door - _were these Avengers so cocky that they didn't bother to lock their doors?_ \- and staring around what was obviously a kitchen. "Why don't you go find a bedroom to sleep in? Don't go in the ones with names on the doors - they belong to other people, okay? Ava and I will sort out dinner." Cassie gave Scott a small smile and ran off. "Ava, I don't think they were all Snapped." He was talking quietly, obviously not wanting Cassie to know that something else had gone wrong. "I wouldn't have dragged you all the way here if I thought that was the case." 

"I know," Ava answered, surprising even herself with how soft her voice sounded. "So, if they weren't all Snapped, where are they?"

\--------

"Steve, you've gotta get up." Yeah, Steve could hear Rhodey talking to him, but he was more focused on turning Bucky's gun over and over in his hands instead of actually doing as Rhodey had asked. He couldn't remember ever experiencing defeat like this before. Not even back in the forties when he'd flown that plane into the ice. Back then, he'd had Bucky to occupy his thoughts. It was as he'd told Sam: _even when I had nothing, I had Bucky_. But now he _didn't_ have Bucky, or Sam for that matter.

"_Steve_!"Natasha didn't bother wasting time asking him to get up - she just grabbed his arms and yanked. Bucky's gun dropped to the floor, and Steve squeezed his eyes shut as the image of his boyfriend dropping like a stone flashed in front of his eyes. 

"Okay, we need to clear up here so we can get back to this fancy-ass compound of yours, so if you'd like to stop moping and pull your weight, pal, that would be great." Rocket glared at him and marched off to where Bruce was attempting to give Thor a pep-talk. It didn't look like it was working. 

"Okoye, will you be coming with us to New York once we've cleared up?" Natasha asked. 

Okoye shook her head. "I am the head of the Dora Milaje, the remaining citizens of Wakanda will look to me for leadership now. I have to stay."

\--------

"Okay everyone, so when we get in we're going to have to hack into government records to establish who's out there and can still help us..." Natasha trailed off. And it wasn't because of Steve's disapproving face when she mentioned hacking into the government's records. No, it was because of the teenage girl neatly stacking a few pots and pans in the kitchen. The teenager looked up, spotted them and yelled, "_Scott_!" at the top of her voice. 

"Don't move," snapped Natasha. "Hands up. Drop any weapons you're carrying on the floor. Rocket, put the gun _down_. We can't shoot her yet."

"It would have no effect it you did. Bullets go straight through me." The girl still hadn't proved that she had no weapons. Instead, she was eyeing them as if they were beneath her. "I could kill you all." 

"Ava? You yelled? What's all this talk about killing people for?" Watching Scott Lang, the man who Natasha had had no contact with since their airport fight about three years ago, walk into the room, talking to this girl as if she wasn't a threat, was definetly _not_ what Natasha had expected to see. He spotted them and made a small _oh_ of surprise. 

"Uhh, hey, Cap. It's Scott Lang? Ant-Man, from, you know, Germany?"

"You know her, Lang?" asked Natasha, indicating the teenager. Spotting everyone's eyes on her, she tilted her head slightly, only to flicker alarmingly as a flash of pain crossed her features. 

"So, I can't shoot her?" asked Rocket into the silence. 

"W-what?! No, you can't shoot her, she's not a threat!" spluttered Scott. Steve and Natasha exchanged a look of _what the fuck is going on?_.

"Lang, I think you've got a _lot_ of explaining to do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ik that hank would prob have designed all the stuff needed to work the quantum tunnel so that it could shrink without breaking, but i wanted to write ava during phasing for this fic as she needs to be able to phase for my plot idea to work :p also, im not sure whether i should follow canon and make this fic pepperony or if i should make it ironstrange. tony's gonna appear in the next chapter filming his message so i need to decide soon - any preferences?

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is gonna keep the main plot of endgame (the time travel, past thanos returning etc) but with my spin on it, more time for my favs and probably a slightly different ending  
the exact details of the time travel etc miiight be kinda different because I havent seen the movie for like,,, a month and idk when im gonna be able to watch it again


End file.
